Remembering Robert Bellah: A Symposium on His Last Book

The eminent, often iconoclastic, sociologist Robert Bellah passed away in recent days at the age of eighty six. The cause of death was apparently complication from a minor surgery. While Bellah was not a young man, when I saw him last December he was physically sturdy and mentally vigorous. It’s hard not to see this as a death out of season.

R.R. Reno invited Bellah to join First Things for a symposium on what turned out to be his last book, Religion in Human Evolution . It tells an ambitious story encompassing all of human life in an account that leaves room for religion, and for freedom. Yet it is nonetheless a story in which orthodox Christians and Jews will find a great deal to object to. And the respondents to his book—-Thomas Joseph White, Francesca Aran Murphy, Paul Griffiths—-weren’t bashful about doing so.

Bellah pushed back with characteristic force: “Perhaps it was inevitable in a symposium organized by First Things that all three commentators fault my book for not taking the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ as the center of my story, when the fact of the matter is that my book didn’t reach chronologically to the life of Jesus . . . . Theologians will be theologians, I suppose.”

We’ll have more to say on this remarkable man, including from our editor. For now, here—-available free to non-subscribers for the first time—-are the contributions to the symposium.

Introduction

A word from the editor about the seminar on Robert N. Bellah’s magnum opus

R. R. Reno

Sociology as Theology

Robert Bellah’s book renews the liberal Protestant project.

Thomas Joseph White

From Play to Freedom

Robert Bellah puts creative freedom at the heart of human nature.

Francesca Aran Murphy

Impossible Pluralism

Choosing between academic universal history and Christian faith

Paul Griffiths

A Reply to My Critics

Responses to Thomas Joseph White, Francesca Aran Murphy, and Paul Griffiths

Robert N. Bellah

Dear Reader,

Time is short, so I’ll be direct: FIRST THINGS needs you. And we need you by December 31 at 11:59 p.m., when the clock will strike zero. Give now at supportfirstthings.com.

First Things does not hesitate to call out what is bad. Today, there is much to call out. Yet our editors, authors, and readers like you share a greater purpose. And we are guided by a deeper, more enduring hope.

Your gift of $50, $100, or even $250 or more will bring this message of hope to many more people in the new year.

Make your gift now at supportfirstthings.com.

First Things needs you. I’m confident you’ll answer the call.

Make My Gift